Table of Contents
When should we submit the I-693 immigration medical exam results?
If a foreign national marries a US citizen or is getting a green card in some other way, perhaps through employment, as part of the green card process, as part of becoming a lawful permanent resident as you register permanent residence in the United States, or as part of your application for an immigrant visa, they are going to need to provide medical exam or medical examination results from a US civil surgeon to the immigration service. And the way that that works is on a form called an I-693.
Read on to learn more about:
The United States wants to make sure that immigrants who are coming to the United States do not have any diseases, communicable diseases or otherwise. They want to know a little bit about your health history.Â
Most importantly, they want to make sure that you’ve been vaccinated as they take a look at your vaccination record. And, of course, the way that you can do that is by providing proof of your vaccination records and then getting any other additional shots from a civil surgeon. These, including your examination and vaccination record, are possible through the report of medical examination you will provide them or the I-693 form.
Now, a civil surgeon isn’t just any old doctor in the United States. There’s a USCIS website that will provide people going through the immigration process with the names and addresses of these authorized doctors who can complete your medical exam. Otherwise, you can acquire these from a USCIS field office.Â
If you just type in USCIS civil surgeon, you can put in your zip code. And they’ll show you all the civil surgeons or the USCIS-designated civil surgeons that are near you.Â
When you go to the civil surgeon, you will provide them with whatever vaccination records you have. And then they’ll take a brief health history from you; they’ll ask you about drug use, and then they will have you fill out Form I-693. And they will work on the form with you, and they will provide the civil surgeon’s signature on your medical clearance to be admitted into the United States.Â
If you have tuberculosis or if you have other kinds of diseases, those things can come up in your medical exam or your immigration medical examination. And you are going to receive a sealed envelope from the USCIS civil surgeon.
You will then include that with your application, either at the beginning when you file Form I-693 to the office requesting the documents or right before your interview.Â
More Immigration Tips and Resources
Now generally, we actually have a little split in the office. Most of the people around here in the office like to submit the medical exam or the completed form right away with the initial application. But sometimes, that slows the case down, and I like to get the case out the door. I like to get that receipt number. I like to get the case underway.Â
The regulations provide that if you don’t submit the completed form with the medical exams right at the beginning, you can also submit it at the interview itself. The officer will take the sealed envelope. Obviously, you can’t open that envelope beforehand, and they will go through and open it up. And they’ll read through the results of the medical exams, and they’ll make sure that you are okay to be admitted into the United States, considering your health-related grounds, or let you know if there is a need to adjust status on your end.
To avoid adjudication delays with the report of the medical examination, we prefer to do it later. Here’s why:
So my personal recommendation is to wait after you have filed your case and have received your interview notice to go obtain your medical examination results.Â
When you receive your interview notice, you’re generally going to have about six or four weeks to get your case ready for interview. And they’re going to tell you that interview date four or six weeks down the road. And that’ll be plenty of time to get your medical exam in a sealed envelope.
So obviously, as soon as you get the notice in those scenarios, you’re going to want to call the civil surgeon right away to get that set up because you want to be able to bring the sealed envelope with the medical examination results to the interview. But the one thing you don’t want to do is to send it sometime in between. So if you don’t submit this Form I-693 at the beginning, don’t send it a few weeks later or don’t send it two months later after you get your receipt. Just hold onto Form I-693 and bring it to your medical.Â
If you send it to USCIS, I doubt that it’ll ever come to your alien file. And you’re just going to be left having to do it all over again. So that’s not something that’s fun. It does cost several hundred dollars to get this civil surgeon I-693 report, so you want to make sure that you get that squared away and bring it to your interview properly.Â
What you learned above are ways to avoid the I-693 deficiency notice or when to submit Form I-693.
So, if you have questions about the medical exam for your application for permanent residence, or about civil surgeons, or about the I-693, give us a call at 314-325-1041. You can email us at [email protected]. Be sure to join us in our Facebook group. It’s called Immigrant Home. We share a lot of good information in there every day about the immigration scene in America. And if you like this video, we ask that you subscribe to our YouTube channel and share it out on social whenever you can. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.
